snacks

Walt Disney World Freebie Friday: Boma Cookie Decorating | A Disney Mom’s Thoughts

June 30, 2017 blogging

Did you know Boma~ Flavors of Africa at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge offers free cookie decorating to kids of all ages every afternoon! Head to the restaurant at 1:30 for a 30 minute decorating session. Guests are provided with an animal shaped sugar cookie and decorating supplies such as icing and sprinkles.

This is a unique way to get a FREE cookie and hands on activity for your family at Walt Disney World.

What is the Disney Dining Plan? | A Disney Mom’s Thoughts

April 24, 2017 blogging

Disney Guests staying at select Walt Disney World Resort hotels with Magic Your Way Vacation Packages can choose a Disney Dining Plan. The Disney Dining Plans offer guests the opportunity to pre pay for meals throughout their vacation at over 100 locations throughout Walt Disney World Resort. Currently, there are three types of Dining Plans:

Disney Quick Service Dining Plan: Everyone in your party ages 3+ will receive 2 quick service meals and 2 snacks for each night of your package stay and a refillable mug that can be refilled at any self service beverage island at a Disney Resort hotel.
Disney Dining Plan: Everyone in your party ages 3+ will receive 1 table service meal, 1 quick service meal and 2 snacks for each night of your package stay and a refillable mug that can be refilled at any self service beverage island at a Disney Resort hotel.
Disney Deluxe Dining Plan: Everyone in your party ages 3+ will receive 3 meals (table service or quick service) and 2 snacks for each night of your package stay and a refillable mug that can be refilled at any self service beverage island at a Disney Resort hotel.

You can read details about the plans and see if anything has changed since your last visit by following this link.

When using the Disney Dining Plan guests will need to present their MagicBand or card to the cashier at quick service locations or the server at table service locations prior to ordering. You will be able to monitor your party’s meals electronically through the MagicBand. You can also track your meals through the receipt your server will give you. At the bottom of each receipt you’ll be able to see your remaining meal and snack balances. Guests can redeem meals and snacks in any order during your stay, until the allocated number of meals and snacks has been depleted. All unused meals and snacks and the use of refillable mugs expire at midnight on your checkout date.

Snacks: I think the snack options are my boys favorite part of the dining plan. Some of the many options are: ice cream, popsicles, popcorn, 12 oz. hot drinks, milk or juice, whole fruit, 20 oz. bottle and fountain drinks, bag of snacks.
Quick Service Meals: Think of this as “fast food” where you order at a counter and find a seat. The quick service meals include 1 entree and 1 nonalcoholic beverage.
Table Service Meals: These meals are what my boys call sit down meals where a waiter will take your order and bring your meal. Table service meals include 1 entree, 1 dessert, 1 nonalcoholic beverage OR 1 full buffet or family style meal. Breakfast is the same minus the dessert.
Signature Dining and Dinner Shows: These restaurants offer a more upscale, elegant table service option and require 2 table service meal credits. Currently there are 18 signature dining restaurants and 3 dinner shows. You can see the complete list of restaurants at this link.
Private In Room Dining/ Pizza Delivery: In Room Dining includes 1 entree, 1 dessert, and 1 nonalcoholic beverage. You will be charged 2 meals for each private in room dining meal ordered.

There are a few items that are not included in any Disney Dining Plans:

Gratuities
Alcoholic Beverages
Items that are more than a single serving (box of doughnuts, jar of peanut butter)
Items served in a souvenir container (drinks, popcorn)
Items sold from recreational rental counters
Items considered to be merchandise (bottle toppers, glow cubes, bottle straps)
Special dining events offered at certain Table service locations

Remember, children under three eat free at buffets or family style meals. If you are dining at a quick service or table service restaurant, you will want to order, and pay, for your child’s meal. Children ages 3-9 will have to order from the children’s menu at a table service restaurant.

An automatic 18% gratuity charge will be added to your bill for parties of 6 or more. An automatic gratuity charge may also be added to your bill for items you order that are not included in the Disney Dining Plan (such as alcoholic beverages).

Many of Disney’s Table Service restaurants book quickly, and reservations are highly recommended. You can reserve dining up to 180 days in advance online or by calling (407) WDW-DINE. If you book your trip with me, I’ll be happy to wake up early 180 days prior to your trip to book your reservations for you!

The Fox and the Hound Family Movie Night | A Disney Mom’s Thoughts

April 3, 2017 blogging

The Fox and the Hound was next on our 2016 Disney Movie Resolution. We sat down and had a great Family Movie Night at the end of June. This movie was released on July 10, 1981. I’m pretty sure anyone who saw this movie in the 80s named their new puppy Copper. I always wanted a hound dog named Copper because of this movie and I’m still waiting!

For our snack we had Happy Birthday cupcakes. I didn’t want to do “dog” themed snacks since we did that with 101 Dalmatians. So I visited Disneymeals.me for inspiration.

In the movie Widow Tweed has a photo of Tod with his birthday cake when he was younger. This was the inspiration for our snack. While I would have loved to make a cake with “Happy Birthday Tod” on it, I ran out of time… cupcakes were so much easier!

The Rescuers Family Movie Night | A Disney Mom’s Thoughts

March 29, 2017 blogging

The Rescuers was released on June 22, 1977. I think I vaguely remember seeing this in the movie theatre right after I turned three years old. I know I remember loving the book as a child and wanting to read about Miss Bianca and Bernard. Last June, I was able to introduce this movie to my boys for the first time during our weekly Family Movie Night. This was the 24th movie in our collection.

While they claimed to have enjoyed it, I’m not sure they really did. My youngest actually left during the viewing, but my middle son stayed for the whole thing. Maybe if I could have come up with better snacks they would have been more into it!

For our snacks, we had Ring Pops to represent the Devil’s Eye Diamond Bianca and Bernard helped find in the pirate skull. We also ate gingersnap cookies. These were the cookies Penny’s cat, Rufus, ate in the movie.

Have you seen The Rescuers? What were your thoughts?

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Family Movie Night | A Disney Mom’s Thoughts

March 14, 2017 blogging

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was released on March 11, 1977 by Walt Disney Studios. The first time I saw this movie was June 11, 2016. Almost 40 years after it was released. After watching it, I know why it took almost 40 years. I didn’t like it. My boys didn’t like it. But, we pushed through it and finished it so we could say we did it.

This movie is several small stories about the adventures the characters take together. While I love the characters (in the movie, in the parks, and as stuffed animals) and we enjoy the books, none of us cared for the movie. I feel guilty for this because Pooh is so lovable, Piglet is so innocent and Tigger is so fun. Oh well. We made memories and had great snacks together!

For our snacks, we had Pooh’s honeycomb. I basically made Rice Krispy treats but substituted Honeycomb cereal for the Rice Krispies. Our second snack was Pooh’s mix. This mix had the following:

Teddy Grahams- Pooh
Gummy Bears- Pooh
Cheeto’s- Tigger’s Tail
Honeycomb cereal- Pooh’s honeycomb
Cheddar Rabbits- Rabbit
Mini Marshmallows- the fluffy white clouds in the movie
M&Ms- to add color!

Even Pooh himself approved of our snack!

How do you feel about the Winnie the Pooh movies? I’d love to hear in the comments!

Robin Hood Family Movie Night| A Disney Mom’s Thoughts

March 9, 2017 blogging

Robin Hood was our next movie in our 2016 New Year’s Movie Resolution. We actually watched this movie and had our movie night way back in June of 2016. This movie was released by Walt Disney Studios on November 8, 1973. My mom was actually pregnant with me when this came out! I vaguely remember seeing this movie as a child. I think I remember the book more than the movie.

My boys were familiar with the music because we have several of these songs on a Disney Movies CD we listen to in the car. Robin Hood was such a fun movie for my boys. My oldest had seen it but this was the first viewing for my youngest. Of course, they like the “bad guys” and want to shoot arrows. I knew this would be the case, so for our snack we had arrows and targets!

The arrows were fairly simple to make. Using a large pretzel rod, chocolate wafers, Hershey’s Hugs, and pull apart Twizzlers. I melted the chocolate wafers and put them in a sandwich bag with a small part of the corner clipped off to have a make shift icing bag. I added a “dollop” of chocolate on the end of the pretzel to attach the Hershey’s Hug which was the arrowhead. Then made a zig zag pattern down the pretzel shaft and my son added the Twizzler pieces to the end for the fletching. These were a hit.

For the target, we used sugar cookies and icing. I tried to make red, but it came out pink! Oh well! I used a traditional flat icing tip to make the circles on the cookie. Of course the boys wanted in on this too, so some looked better than others! We then used a party toothpick with the colored plastic on the end to represent the arrow in the target.

It was a fun night of baking, eating, watching, and laughing together.

The Aristocats Family Movie Night | A Disney Mom’s Thoughts

March 2, 2017 blogging

The Aristocats was released by Walt Disney Studios on December 24, 1970. Our family watched it on May 28, 2016 for the first time as a part of our 2016 New Year’s Resolution. Meeting Thomas O’Malley and Duchess was a treat. The story reminded me a bit of Lady and the Tramp… but with cats. The only thing we knew about this movie prior to watching it was the song, Everybody Wants To Be A Cat. Everything else was new- the characters, the storyline, everything. (Not sure how I missed this one in my childhood…)

For our snack, we made simple kitty cat cupcakes. Honestly, this was a selfish treat. My favorite dessert is a chocolate cupcake with white icing so anytime I can create a movie snack using those two things, I will! 😉 Don’t tell my boys….

The Jungle Book Family Movie Night | A Disney Mom’s Thoughts

February 27, 2017 blogging

Disney’s The Jungle Book was released on October 18, 1967. My boys and I watched this movie last May as part of our 2016 Disney New Year’s Resolution. While this was the first time my boys had seen the movie, they were already familiar with the story. They loved the movie even more because we had read the book so much and the songs are on so many of our “Disney mixed CDs”. The characters are fun and lovable and the songs are some of our favorites. “I wanna be like you-oo-oo”

This was a great movie for our family. Since my parents visited Walt Disney World prior to this movie night, we had new friends, King Louie and Baloo, to watch with us! We enjoyed curling up on the couch with our new stuffed animals eating our movie snack which was trail mix.

Jungle Trail Mix:Animal Crackers (jungle animals)
Green Twizzlers (vines)
Cheetos (tiger tails)
Pretzels (twigs)
Gummy Bears (Baloo)
M&Ms (for color)
Popcorn (for crunch)

There are more great Jungle Book ideas from my friends over at Adventures in Familyhood. You can also find crafts, games, snacks, and ideas at the Disney Movies site. Have fun!!